Door County Wisconsin: GOP Defiles Martha's Vineyard of the Midwest

Two futures for Door County Wisconsin: Life is in bloom
v. Our growing dead zones. Only one works for Wisconsin.

Attorney Ted Olson appeared on the national news shows back when federal litigation engaged the question whether states could deny marriage to same-gender couples, (Mal Contends).

In several appearances Olson was seen from Door County Wisconsin, a gorgeous retreat and destination in the northeastern Wisconsin peninsula jutting out into Lake Michigan.

Door County is another region of Wisconsin where generations-long families are attempting to sound the alarm about Republican-abetted water pollution and degradation, while at the same time telling vacationers to come to Door County. It's a mixed message.

If the Republican and Big Ag war on Wisconsin water continues apace, Door County will no longer face its public relations dilemma.

The war for clean, safe water will have been lost, as the lunatic in the White House continues to savage protections for clean water as well. Ted Olson will find another destination.

Former Door County Advocate editor out on his own since about last November, Lee Luft, is sounding the alarm. Wisconsin should listen.

From the Kewaunee County Comet:

In Door and Kewaunee Counties nearly every major waterway and water body is now listed on the EPA’s Impaired Waters List.

Not good. The column echoes concerns of 10,000s in the northeastern peninsula, yet reading Luft's prose resembles listening to a battered wife on TV afraid of retaliation from a felonious husband.

Luft laughingly presents the local Republican member of Congress as working to solve water-pollutions problems. Ahh, yeah.

Luft's warnings are necessary, but writing from fear of the toxic-toilet politicians and polluters is never a good posture

From the Door County Visitor Bureau comes word of Spring and early Summer, "Life is in bloom":

With 300 miles of shoreline, you can watch a sunrise and a sunset over the water without leaving the county. See thousands of acres of orchards, explore art galleries, devour delicious cherry pie, sip on local wines and brews, splash in the lake or paddle along the bluffs, stroll through five state parks or tour 11 historic lighthouses. No matter what you're looking to get out of your vacation, our 19 unique communities allow you to live life well.

Going to have to come up with a new slogan, if Republicans and polluters keep up their war against water.

Live life well just does not comport with millions of gallons of cow shit.

Susan Turner: Witnessed Wisconsin’s Water Degradation over 18 Years

Lynn Utesch is a clean water fighter in northeastern Wisconsin.
Utesch is running for state assembly against Big Ag's man in
northeastern Wisconsin, Republican state rep. Joel Kitchens.
Image by Coburn Dukehart
Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism

'Dreamed of retiring in Door County,' - No more

Iowa resident, Susan Turner, has a powerful letter in the Door County Pulse.

The Republican war against water is of course an act of insanity, even many Republicans may note water is necessary for life.

Yet, this fact does not stop Republicans from taking money from, and helping polluters pollute, driving families from their multi-generational homes with no remorse.

This is unacceptable.

Writes Turner:

The scale of industrial animal operations, concentration of manure produced in one location, makes this a crime against nature.

We shouldn’t be expected to compromise our water or hold our breath to accommodate agribusiness over community.

I’m a tourist of Wisconsin. I dreamed of retiring to the Door County area. That would be a foolish thing to invest in now. The idea of no swimming or consuming water, due to contamination, throws a wet blanket on vacations and investing in real estate.

April 29, 2013 at 1:30 pm, my three children and I were victims of hazardous gases as we headed south from the Wisconsin Dells on Highway12 between Baraboo and Prairie Du Sac. Center pivots spraying liquid nutrients made us close windows and speed faster as we searched for air that was not burning our lungs and nostrils. When we got a clean pocket of air, the caustic stench happened again. A service van on the opposite side of the road had pulled over with the driver sitting on the ground using an inhaler. He could not even operate his vehicle.

This past week my husband and I vacationed in Bayfield, Wisconsin. We chose Bayfield County because it has the cleanest water. We can swim, boat, fish, and drink the water, for now.

Republicans are destroying Wisconsin, and it's happening little by little, step by step, as implied by Turner. This ought to alarm everyone, particularly Door County, the Martha's Vinyard of the Midwest.

Two elections featuring leaders of the polluters' lobby in the capitol—state reps Joel Kitchens (R) and Scott Krug (R)—show toxic-toilet politicians against two lifelong environmentalists.

At some point, we will come to understand such environmentalists are saving Wisconsin.

Writes environmentalist, farmer, veteran and state assembly candidate, Lynn Utesch from Kewaunee County in northeastern Wisconsin, commenting on his run for Wisconsin's first district assembly race:

The 1st Assembly District is unique — an Island, a Peninsula, the Niagara Escarpment — all make this place we have chosen to call home special. Apart from the shared natural beauty that surrounds us, and the waters of Lake Michigan — the 1st Assembly District also has challenges that must be addressed.

Water is the #1 issue in the 1st Assembly District. Arriving in Kewaunee in 2004, one of the first things our family experienced was the poisoning of the Treml family due to the spreading of liquid manure tainting their well, affecting the entire family, and sending their infant daughter to intensive care.

In fall of 2014, in Jacksonport, a similar scenario played out with an infant and 16 people poisoned due to liquid manure spreading near a sinkhole. Currently in Kewaunee County 34% of the tested wells are unfit to drink due to high nitrates, e-coli, or both. 

Citizens would do well to heed the words of Ms. Turner and Lynn Utesch.

New Report: Nitrates in Water Are "Imminent threat to human health"

Kate Golden has the latest in the Failure at the Faucet series by the Wisconsin Center for Investigative Reporting.

Golden's piece reports on a particularly disturbing aspect of Wisconsin's water crisis pointing to nitrates in drinking water, and Blue Baby syndrome.

Writes Golden:

Among those with water contaminated by nitrate are Sherryl and Doug Jones of rural Spring Green.

About eight years ago, water from their private well tested at 20 milligrams of nitrate per liter of water — twice the health limit. Sherryl Jones said the couple initially switched to bottled water and, since 2012, they have been using a reverse osmosis system to remove nitrate at a cost of about $25 a month. Reverse osmosis removes nitrate and other contaminants by using high pressure to push water through a semipermeable membrane.

'We had children, we had babies in our house, we had a pregnant daughter, we had pregnant daughters-in-law. What was this (water) doing? There was no way we could let them drink this water,' Sherryl Jones recalled.

Jones said she urged neighbors to get their water tested, too. The result: Some of them had been drinking water with four times the health limit of nitrate. In fact, testing by the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point’s Center for Watershed Science and Education found 31 percent of the private well samples collected in the Spring Green area had nitrate levels above the health standard.

As the Scott Walker administration sells out the very lifeblood of Wisconsin citizens by refusing to protect water, all parents can do is make sure their babies drink bottled water as Wisconsin remains on a trajectory that will inescapably lead to trajedy.